Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Field Lab Sunshine

Drove down the ranch road to check out a small travel trailer that I heard was for sale.... looks ok from the outside - I really need to take a look inside but the owner wasn't home. Smelled like rain as I headed east - lots of humidity in the air. The creosote gives off a nice fresh odor that permeates the desert when it's really humid or raining out here. Tweaked around more with the SHWH this morning. Had good sun until about 2PM then clouds into the evening with just a brief sprinkle of almost nothing. No hot water yet but I learned something about fluid dynamics today. Seems I really need to vent the highest part of the tank - know just the part to get but I will have to drill and tap a hole in the tank in order to make the connection. I mounted my last chunks of glass on the top and south side of the tank enclosure this afternoon. Just closing it in with what I have handy until I decide on how to finish it up. Kind of wrapped things up early and battened down the hatches once again as we have a 30% chance of more showers overnight...good news is tomorrow is supposed to be sunny(=shower for me). I saw the weather report for my old home town and they are expecting another snow storm tonight and tomorrow. Emailed my former next door neighbor Robin some good news about the storm. Seems this wintry mix is coming from the southwest and is the result of a cold air mass coming south out of Canada that is mixing with warmer/moist air rising north out of Mexico, passing right over my head here at the Field Lab. I told Robin that the silver lining of her next snow storm is that it will contain a little bit of Field Lab sunshine in it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fluid Dynamics...yech. I think I like Dale's rig better. Black metal cans get hot and a slow dribble of water to wash with...powered by gravity. Even cold days in October and November, if they are sunny, get's right hot water.

I'll bet yours is good year round rain or shine. Keep up the good work!

neil said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
neil said...

Some hot water tanks have a glass lining to prevent corrosion. You might want to check it out before drilling if possible.
http://www.hotwater.com/lit/training/4800r9.pdf